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A Sumptuous 'Sylvia' From the Royal Ballet

by Zoe Strimpel
Wed, 20 Feb 2008 at 1:35 PM

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And so to the Royal Opera House last night to see Torquato Tasso's "Sylvia," which the Royal Ballet is performing only sporadically this season. (It is competing with, among others, "La Traviata," "Die Zauberflöte," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the ROH this month and next.) It was certainly worth the wait. This ballet of gods and nymphs and other mythological creatures (music by Léo Delibes, choreography by Frederick Ashton, staging by Christopher Newton) was rendered in a style so detailed and luxurious that it was hard sometimes to focus on anything but the marvelous colors and textures whirling onstage.

Another draw, though, was the wonderful Thiago Soares, a Brazilian-born dancer and Royal Ballet principal I interviewed a few months back. Apart from being charm on legs, Mr. Soares has an unusual background that makes his current success all the more pleasing. He got his start in performance art when he was sent to circus school, at age 12, by parents eager to keep their energetic but bored child off the streets after school. He used his developing acrobatic skills to entertain crowds on the street by dancing hip-hop and capoeira with his buddies. An obvious talent, he was then sent to the more formal Center for Dance in Rio de Janeiro, and from there he began international touring and success that led to his winning Outstanding Male Artist (Classical) at the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards in 2004, two years after he joined the Royal Ballet, where he became a principal in 2006. Rather wonderfully, he fell for a colleague at the Royal Ballet, the equally talented Argentinean dancer, Marianela Nuñez.

Last night, the muscular Mr. Soares played Orion, the evil (and strapping) god who falls for the beautiful Sylvia (played by Ms. Nuñez) and tries to force her to love him. He is unsuccessful, however, as Sylvia manages to escape his clutches and, chaperoned by the god Eros, is reunited with her lover, the shepherd Aminta. The scene between Mr. Soares and Ms. Nuñez is intoxicating. Knowing the two are a couple in real life only adds to the chemistry (as does Sylvia's costume — a virtual bikini of jewels).

To some, the story may sound like typical balletic tosh — a lot of complexity and little substance. Indeed, in 1967, 15 years after he created "Sylvia," Ashton, the former choreographer of the Royal Ballet, decided to whittle it down to just one act. By 1988, the year Ashton died, only the third act was being performed. But shortly before his death, Ashton encouraged Mr. Newton, his onetime ballet master at the Royal Ballet, to put it back together, since he had been so impressed with Mr. Newton's revival of "Ondine." Ashton would be proud of this production. This is not mere excess; it's a bewilderingly lovely sequence of scenes that hang together in a way some ballets just do not. ("The Nutcracker" springs to mind.) And is a love story with a happy ending really such a bad thing? Surely not.

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